Seven days after suicide of gang rape victim, Crime Branch sends team to Kunduli

.........BHUBANESWAR: A good seven days after the suicide by alleged gang rape victim of Kunduli, the Crime Branch of Police on Monday sent a team to Koraput for starting probe into her death.The team, led by a DSP ranked officer, reached Kunduli in the evening for investigating the unnatural death case registered with Pottangi police station after the girl committed suicide on January 22.
What took the Crime Branch so long to constitute a team for probe into the UD case remains unanswered. The Crime Branch was entrusted probe into the gang rape of the Class IX student of Musaguda village on November 8.On December 4, the agency had submitted its action taken report to National Human Rights Commission in which it had maintained that a lady DSP was assigned the matter and probe was underway. So far, the CB has not come out with anything concrete even as the State Police continues to face flak over the case. The agency’s silence on the whole issue has only made matters worse.
In fact, what added to the woes of the police are charges that two different forensic reports on the gang rape victim emerged from the State Forensic Science Laboratory (SFSL) which operates under the Crime Branch.The lab though said the first report, purportedly a draft test indicating presence of two semen patches on undergarments of the victim, was not conclusive while the final report submitted to the court was based on DNA profiling.
The final report, submitted to SDJM, Jeypore, claimed that the two stains were vaginal secretion which belonged to the victim and matched her DNA profile. The blood stains found on the girl’s dress matched with her.While DGP Dr RP Sharma has asked ADG, Crime Branch Santosh Upadhyay for a detailed report on the discrepancies, the investigating agency appeared to have taken no first hand cognisance of the matter even as the matter invited controversy.The SFSL Director Purna Chandra Mandal, however, has asserted that the DNA profiling was conclusive and can not be challenged.